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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

There are no passges that get me every time, over and over again. Nothing ever really hits me hard unless there's some element of genuine surprise to it: maybe it's a piece I've never heard before, or a piece I haven't heard in a long time (so that I've forgotten some of the details), or maybe the presentation is sufficiently different to catch me off guard.

If I know exactly what's coming -- which is the case with recordings -- then my reaction goes a bit meta, as in "oh, here comes a crushingly beautiful moment, and there it goes" which just isn't the same thing as being crushed.

(Exception: sentimental reactions to music that I associate with some life event. Mostly pop songs, in my case, but I don't think the OP is asking about this sort of reaction.)

#1952012 - 08/31/1210:48 AMRe: passages that make you tear up every time
[Re: Gerard12]

Pogorelich.
4000 Post Club Member
Registered: 12/28/08
Posts: 4565
Loc: not somewhere over the rainbow

Originally Posted By: Gerard12

I can't play the 1st mvmnt of Schubert's D960, nor the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Op 10#3 without becoming a bit of an emotional mess.

Nice choices.

I don't think people have a specific piece that sets them off every time. Like someone mentioned, sometimes it's the element of surprise, the mood you're in, etc.

But all the times that this has happened to me, it's been at a live concert. There's something absolutely magical about a (really good) live concert - it's like transcending to a completely different world and state of mind.

Debrucey, you know how much I love that section. (My favorite part is at 2:20). Mr. Ferguson, no matter how many times I hear it, it still manages to touch me very deeply.

Pogorelich, I agree. A few years back I heard a live performance of the Turangalila. It was an extraordinary experience. You do not know how close I was to jumping up and dancing in the aisles during the Finale.

I don't think people have a specific piece that sets them off every time.

I do........

How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place - Brahms Requiem

As a chorister I've performed the entire Requiem twice (served as rehearsal accompanist leading up to one performance) and have sung this particular selection on several occasions. It always has a profound impact on me.

The second movement of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto - when the reprise of the beautiful main tune by the clarinet comes in pp with throbbing string accompaniment, my eyes well up.....

_________________________
"I don't play accurately - anyone can play accurately - but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life."

Most of the musical passages that really "get to me" are from vocal music, particularly opera or vocal with orchestra.

There are moments in the final scene of "Der Rosenkavalier" which are so heart-rending, both dramatically and musically, that it's difficult (for me) not to be profoundly moved by them : "Hab' mir's gelobt..." and "Ist ein Traum, kann nicht wirklich sein."

There is another "gotcha!" moment in Mimi's third act aria ("La Bohème, of course!) "Donde lieta uscì" where the tonality changes from A major to D-flat major (Mimi goes from a G-natural to an A-flat while the orchestra changes the tonality from a dominant VII on A to D-flat, with the soprano's words soaring upwards to a high B-flat : "... se vuoi, se vuoi serbarla a ricordo..."

As my third example, I can't decide whether it's the final vocal phrase in the closing measures of Mahler's "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen," "In meinem Lieben, in meinem Lied" or whether it's the final orchestral measures of the same work: the long-held English horn's G before resolving to an F over the orchestra's already established B-flat major tonality; it is so poignant!

#1952090 - 08/31/1202:12 PMRe: passages that make you tear up every time
[Re: JoelW]

Andromaque
3000 Post Club Member
Registered: 08/29/08
Posts: 3886
Loc: New York

BruceD, a man of exquisite taste.But I do not tear up to "sad" music but rather to joyful things or to a brilliant solo or a gorgeously rendered coloratura passage or a gloriously resonant orchestra. I am particularly moved when an artist gives his/her best and both he/she and the audience (I) know it.

#1952398 - 09/01/1201:51 AMRe: passages that make you tear up every time
[Re: JoelW]

currawong
6000 Post Club Member
Registered: 05/15/07
Posts: 6004
Loc: Down Under

Schubert: D960 second movementMahler: Das Lied von der Erde, last movement - many places, but particularly the ending. Ewig, ewig ...Mahler: Symphony #3, last movement. I'm not a great brass lover, but when the brass come quietly in with the main theme about 5 minutes from the end - it gets me every time. Strauss: Beim SchlafengehenBerg: Violin concerto, at the end where it all begins to dissolve.